Hellboy reboot screenwriter talks darker vision for the new film

Comic book creator Mike Mignola recently announced that director Neil Marshall (The Descent, Game of Thrones) will direct an R-rated Hellboy reboot featuring David Harbour of Stranger Things as the title hero. Now Silver Screen Beat has spoken to the new film’s screenwriter, Andrew Cosby, about the darker vision for the character.

“I can’t really talk about specifics with regard to the story, which they’re keeping a pretty tight lid on at the moment, but I can say that this is a darker, more gruesome version of Hellboy,” Cosby said. “Neil said from the very beginning that he wanted to walk a razor’s edge between horror and comic book movie, which was music to my ears, because that’s what I was shooting for in the script, and precisely what Mignola does so well with the comics. Honestly, everyone has just been working overtime to bring that Mignola magic to the big screen. The script is done, but work will continue as we move forward, always trying to make it the best it can be.”

Millennium Films is currently in negotiations with producers Larry Gordon and Lloyd Levin to reboot the horned hero. The film’s working title is Hellboy: Rise of the Blood Queen and features a script by Andrew Cosby (Eureka), Christopher Golden and Mignola himself.

First appearing in comics in 1993, Hellboy is a demon summoned from Hell by the Nazi occultists near the end of World War II. Raised by Professor Trevor Bruttenholm of Bureau for Paranormal Research and Defense, Hellboy went on to be billed as “The World’s greatest occult detective.” The adventures of the character have been chronicled in countless comics, including his time with the Bureau, his early years as a young boy, and even the time he spent in hell after dying on Earth. The main Hellboy title has also served as a launching pad for other characters and stories including Abe Sapien, Lobster Johnson, BPRD, Sledgehammer 44 and others!

The first Hellboy movie, directed by Guillermo del Toro, hit theaters in April of 2004, with Ron Perlman in the title role. It was produced on a $66 million budget and earned $99 million worldwide. Del Toro’s sequel, Hellboy II: The Golden Army, debuted in July of 2008 on a budget of $85 million and earned $160.3 million.

Are you looking forward to a darker Hellboy reboot, or did you prefer Guillermo del Toro’s version? Let us know in the comments below!